Precipice of a Change
by xpiester333x
Summary: Zoro stood there. He was on the precipice of something. One wrong move would send him over the edge into an unknown. He needed to step back, but his feet were locked and frozen on spot.


This is my One Piece Secret Valentine gift for AuthenticAussie! She's such an awesome writer (that's her ff name as well you should definitely read her stuff) and I hope I wrote something she can enjoy as well.

There's also an author's note at the bottom of the page that will pertain to the fic, and might be interesting to read (although it's not essential).

* * *

It was a Wednesday the first time the kid came into the bar.

Wednesdays were notoriously slow nights. The usual crowd of college students and office workers wouldn't be in until Friday, ready to let off steam from their week and drink themselves stupid for the weekend. Wednesdays nights meant that only the usual drunks would be in. They'd come and drink themselves into a stupor, and then slip off into the night just before closing. Zoro knew all of their faces, and more importantly all of their preferred drinks, and there was little else to expect out of a Wednesday night.

That was why the appearance of a newcomer stood out so much to him. If the kid had slipped in on a Friday or a Saturday, Zoro probably wouldn't have noticed him at all and the course of his life probably would have played out very differently.

It was passed ten o'clock that night when the stranger came in. He walked in with the air and confidence of someone who belonged there, but his presence immediately turned a few heads. For one thing, it was the middle of January and the temperatures were threatening to break record lows, but the kid came in wearing and old pair of shorts and a red tank top. He was even wearing _flip flops_. He looked like he had just come in off a sunny beach. The idea of being dressed like that in the blustery winter air made even Zoro shiver.

"Hey!" the kid greeted with an abundance of enthusiasm. "What's good to drink around here?"

Zoro was momentarily stunned by the kid's presence. His voice was loud and clear, unashamed, undeterred by the stares he was getting from the other patrons. It was like everything seemed to bounce off of the kid, and he existed in a world of his own invention.

But Zoro didn't want to get caught up in the sway of his tide. As strong a presence as the stranger carried with him, Zoro refused to succumb to it.

"Do you have an ID?" Zoro asked. His voice was flat and unaffected, and he masked his curiosity with boredom.

"Oh! Sure!" The kid fished into his back pocket for his wallet. "It's been a while since someone asked me to show them that," he said, flipping his ID out onto the table.

It was an out-of-state driver's license. Zoro took his time inspecting it. It claimed the kid was legal, even if he didn't look it, and Zoro expected it to be a fake. It happened a lot, when a younger student wanted to get into the bar and drink. Making an out-of-state ID was pretty common too, since it was usually harder to tell if an ID from another state was a fake or not. Zoro had been doing this job long enough to tell when someone was trying to pass a fake on him, and the ID this kid gave him wasn't fake. If it was, it was a damn good fake, and he would poor the kid a glass just for the effort.

Zoro slid the ID back across the bar to the stranger.

"I don't know what you like to drink," Zoro said as he did so. "But we have locally made rum that's pretty good."

"Okay." The stranger smiled. It was a blinding, almost unnerving smile. "I'll have a glass."

"You mean a shot?" Zoro asked, bending below the counter to take up one of the shot glasses.

"One of those." The kid pointed to the draft glasses that lined one of the shelves in the back. "That's a glass, right?"

"You want one of those… filled with rum?" Zoro repeated it slowly, just to be clear.

"Yeah!" There was that smile again. How was it possible to show that many teeth?

Zoro shrugged, and took down one of the glasses, but he didn't feel as nonchalant as he appeared. This guy was too weird.

"Thanks," the kid said, accepting the glass from Zoro. "I'm Luffy, by the way."

"Yeah, I saw your ID," Zoro said, wiping down the already clean counter again, just to keep his hands busy and his eyes off the stranger.

"Oh yeah." Luffy laughed. It was a loud, overjoyed sound for such a stupid remark. "Well I thought I would introduce myself again anyway."

Zoro didn't respond. He didn't really want to invite anymore conversation with this guy. There was something about Luffy that threw up a red flag in Zoro's mind. He was weird, eccentric at best, and people like that were never good news. Neither, for that matter, were people who drank rum out of a draft glass so late on a weeknight. Something was off about this kid, that much was for sure.

The most concerning part about it all, was that more than anything— more than the warning signals and the red flags— Luffy piqued Zoro's curiosity. He brought on questions Zoro was dying to ask, things he was dying to know about the stranger that had wandered into his bar. Zoro had never felt so compelled to know more so much about a stranger in his life, and it was unnerving. He wanted to know more, but the idea of knowing more unsettled him.

Luffy eventually drifted away from the bar. He made his way around the room, stopping to talk to each patron as he went. Zoro tracked his progress, watching through looks he snuck out of the corner of his eyes. He told himself he wasn't watching out of curiosity. He was watching to make sure a fight didn't break out. The "regulars" on the weeknights weren't social, and they were more prone to taking drunken swings at each other than they were to making friends.

But Luffy didn't have any problems. The patrons seemed to warm to him, and the bar filled with laughter as the collection of lost souls that usually sat in opposite corners gathered together into one large group. It wasn't long before the unused jukebox in the corner fired up, and a round of impromptu karaoke started.

Zoro had never seen the bar so lively on a Wednesday night.

The party continued until closing time. The other patrons started to drift out in drunken groups, another first Zoro had never seen. He stared wide-eyed as one of the regulars who never tipped slipped a twenty onto the bar on his way out. He made more that night than he ever had on a weeknight before it.

"Those guys are fun, huh?"

Zoro had been so distracted by his shock he hadn't noticed it was just himself and Luffy left.

"Not in my experience, no," Zoro said, picking up the last of the used glasses from one of the tables.

"What?" Luffy dragged the word out like it was especially shocking news to him. "Why not?"

"They're old drunks," Zoro said, wondering to himself why he was taking the time to explain this. "They come in, drink their fill, and leave when the bar closes."

"Oh," was Luffy's reply. There was a long pause, in which Zoro mentally willed the strange kid away from him, and then Luffy said, "maybe you just never took the time to get to know them."

Zoro opened his mouth to argue that. He knew those people's faces by heart, and could get them their drinks without asking, of course he knew them! But the argument died in his throat. What _did_ he know about them? Some of them he didn't even know by name.

"Maybe you've got a point," Zoro conceded. He hated that he said it aloud.

"You should leave now," he added on, wiping down the last table. "I have to lock up."

"Awww, alright," Luffy said. He sounded disappointed. He stood and pulled out his wallet, slipping a fold of bills onto the table. "Hey, I didn't get your name."

Zoro had half a mind not to answer, but a something inside him chided him for being so childish.

"It's Zoro," he half grunted.

"Zoro! Cool name!" Luffy smiled that _fucking_ smile. "I'll see you tomorrow, Zoro!" he said.

Zoro heard the bell above the bar's door chime once before it latched itself into place, and then he exhaled. His shoulders sagged as he released all the tension he wasn't aware he'd been harboring. He finished cleaning off the table and moved to the last one, the one Luffy had been sitting at. He spotted the fold of bills on the table, payment for his drink, and he picked it up.

He unfolded four one-dollar bills. Enough to cover one shot, not one glass. Zoro grit his teeth and slammed the bills back on the table. If he ever saw that Luffy kid again, he was going to murder him.

* * *

Luffy showed up the next night, just like he said he would.

Thursdays were usually a little busier than other weeknights. People were more willing to lose sleep on the last day of their week, knowing they had the weekend after that to recover. The regulars were there like every night, but they were different that night. They chatted with Zoro a little bit, bought each other drinks, mingled with the other patrons, and all of them left tips. It was like they were trying to capture the same atmosphere they had discovered the night before, with or without the strange kid around.

Luffy came in after ten again. He was immediately greeted with cheers from the mostly drunk bar patrons and it took him a while to reach the bar and order a drink.

"Hey, Zoro!" Luffy beamed at him. "Can I get the same thing as yesterday?"

Zoro slapped his towel down against the counter with a loud _crack_. A group of girls that had been sending flirtatious glanced his way squealed in surprise and quickly turned away. Zoro didn't spare them a glance as he rounded on Luffy.

"No, but you can pay me what you owe me from yesterday," he snapped.

"Yesterday?" Luffy scratched his head as he tried to call up a memory. "Didn't I leave you some cash?"

"You left me four dollars! Does that look like four dollars' worth of liquor to you?" Zoro pointed to the row of glasses on the shelf.

"I don't know." Luffy shrugged. "You never told me how much it was."

Zoro sputtered. The speech he had prepared in his mind crumbled. If there was one thing Zoro was really good at, it was confrontation, but Luffy seemed to repel it like he was wearing invisible armor.

"What do I owe you? I'll pay you," Luffy said.

Zoro stared at him. He honestly didn't know how to handle Luffy. It was like every fraction of control he had was uprooted the moment Luffy walked through the door.

"Let's make it twenty and call it even," Zoro grumbled.

"Okay, cool," Luffy opened his wallet and slipped three twenties on the counter. Zoro noticed he had a whole wad of them stuffed into the folds of his wallet.

"Look that's for yesterday, and twenty for tonight," Luffy said, sliding the money closer to Zoro.

"There's sixty here," Zoro noted.

"That's your tip!" Luffy smiled. "We're good right?"

Zoro stared at the boy in disbelief for a long moment and then slipped the money into the register.

"Yeah," he grumbled, turning around and getting the liquor and the glass. "We're good."

Luffy took his drink, and just like the night before, began to make his rounds. There were more people in the bar tonight, and the crowd was different, but just like the night before, Luffy didn't have a problem mingling with them.

Tonight, Zoro didn't bother to try to curb his curiosity. He didn't see the need to, as the rest of the bar seemed to focus their attentions on Luffy as well. There was something about him that commanded attention, although he was kind of short and lanky, and didn't seem particularly impressive in any overt way. Yet still, the people of the bar seemed to collect around him like they were drawn to him.

Zoro felt it too. He tried to pass it off on Luffy's strange behavior, or on the fact that Luffy was now dancing like a moron arm-in-arm with some other customer. It was impossible not to notice someone who made such a spectacle of himself. That was what Zoro told himself, but he knew that wasn't it. Luffy would be just as intriguing if he sat quietly at the bar, there was just something about him.

Zoro had been working this job for a long time, and had never bothered to get to know a customer. He didn't feel the need to. Zoro didn't like people in general. He didn't find them interesting, and he preferred the quiet peace of privacy in his life. He kept few friends, remained distant from his family, and kept his conversations with the people at the bar to the barest minimum required to get him a decent tip.

It was a hollow existence, Zoro knew that, but he had never felt compelled to change it. It was how life was, he'd always assumed. Or at least, that's what he'd thought until Luffy had walked into the bar. The void that Zoro had purposely maintained in his life suddenly felt like it would consume him. He wondered what it was like on the other side, how it would be to be so open, and to have that kind of presence. What would it be like to smile that way?

Luffy eventually drifted his way back to the bar, his empty glass in hand. It was nearing close again, and people had been steadily trickling out the door for the last hour. Only a few people remained; those that were likely too drunk to get home on their own or those that just needed a place to stay for a little while longer. Zoro ignored them though, because his attention was entirely captivated by Luffy.

"Hey Zoro," Luffy greeted. He slipped his glass up onto the counter and took a seat at the bar.

"Did you want a refill?" Zoro asked, taking the dirty glass from him.

"Nah, I'm good," Luffy said. "I just thought I'd come talk to you for a little bit."

Zoro wondered what it would be like to hold a conversation with him, but he couldn't think of a single good thing to say.

"Do you like your job?" Luffy asked.

Zoro frowned. It was a pretty normal question, but for some reason it felt strange. It didn't fit. Luffy who could command the attention of the whole bar, was asking him something so mundane, and he wondered if maybe it really wasn't just Luffy's antics that drew his attention.

"It's alright," Zoro found himself answering. "The hours suck and I don't care for the people, but the pay is pretty good and the tips are worth it."

He was caught off guard. He hadn't expected to answer so honestly, and yet the words had come from him without a second thought, and once again he had to reevaluate the power Luffy seemed to hold.

"That's kinda sad," Luffy said. "I think your job is really cool, you get to see interesting people all night long."

Zoro frowned. "I don't find them very interesting."

He could see the question forming before Luffy even asked it, and he cut it off before it could bloom.

"You're from Arizona, right? What are you doing all the way out here?" Zoro asked.

"What makes you think I'm from Arizona?" Luffy asked, looking genuinely confused.

"Your ID…"

"Oh!" The confusion on Luffy's face gave way to another smile and he laughed. "I'm not from there, that's just where I registered my car."

It was Zoro's turn to be confused. "So where are you from?"

"Hmm." Luffy picked at the bar top with his fingernail as he considered the question. "Nowhere really."

Zoro promised himself it was only confusion, not interest, that prompted him to ask more.

"What do you mean nowhere?" He asked. "Where were you born?"

Luffy laughed again. "How am I supposed to know? I can't remember that far back!"

Zoro frowned. "Well, where are your parents from?"

Luffy shrugged. "I dunno."

Zoro grit his teeth. It was like this kid was purposely fucking around now. "Okay, then where did you grow up?"

"A lot of places," Luffy said. "My grandpa says I was born with a knack for getting into trouble, so he moved me around a lot."

Zoro didn't know how to proceed from there. In fact he kind of felt like he might have gone too far with his questions. Luffy didn't look bothered at all though, and Zoro couldn't help but go just one step further.

"Well where does your grandpa live?"

"Oh, he's retired to the Bahamas now," Luffy said. "He had to get out the country because his work kinda turned on him and it wasn't good to stay anymore."

That response only triggered a million other questions in Zoro's mind, but that was a rabbit hole he wasn't willing to climb down right now.

"It's closing time," Zoro said instead. "You should get home."

Luffy laughed as if Zoro had said something particularly funny, but Zoro wasn't about to ask what it was. Instead he waved Luffy off as he left and then locked the door securely behind him. Despite his refusal to ask any more questions, his mind continued to buzz with a million of them. Maybe next time he'd let himself try to figure it out.

* * *

Luffy didn't come in Friday or Saturday night, and Zoro was off Sunday. A weekend away from Luffy gave Zoro a chance to clear his head. He spent too much time alone, working in that bar, surrounded by drunks. There were a hundred reasonable explanations as to why someone like Luffy could get so under his skin and rouse so much of his curiosity. He was weird, personable, and liked to make a scene. He would draw anyone's attention.

Zoro refused to acknowledge that there might have been something more to it, because that wasn't possible. It wasn't even likely. It wasn't like Luffy had some kind of mystical superpowers, there were no such thing. It was just his own boredom mixed with Luffy's eccentricities that caused his intrigue, and that pull he felt towards Luffy was a result of his overthinking things.

So when Monday rolled around, and Zoro heard the bell over the door ring just after ten, he didn't even bother to look up from the glass he was drying.

"Hey, Zoro," Luffy greeted.

"Hey, Luffy," Zoro said. He already knew he would be polite, because there was no reason not to be. Luffy was a customer, and not one that caused him any trouble, so he would treat him just like he treated any other customer.

That was it.

Luffy slid two twenties onto the bar top, and Zoro stared at them for a moment.

"Are you buying two drinks?" he asked.

"No, just the one, like usual," Luffy said. "The other is your t-"

Zoro cut him off before he could finish. "You don't have to tip me so much you know."

"I know," Luffy said, "but didn't you say that the tips made your job worth it?"

Zoro looked at him directly for the first time since he'd entered the bar. There it was again. Zoro wrote it off as his overthinking it, or his imagination, but that was easier to do when Luffy wasn't sitting in front of him.

"Yeah, I did," Zoro said, taking the money and pouring Luffy his usual drink. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." Luffy beamed.

This was usually the time of night that Luffy would go and make his rounds through the other patrons. Tonight, however, he stayed seated at the bar. Zoro tried everything possible to avoid having to talk to him or look his way. Maintain a healthy distance and there wouldn't be a problem, was the idea.

Several time the other customers came up to greet Luffy, talk to him, and have a laugh. Luffy obliged them all, asking them to join him and even rousing up a song or two like he had the previous week, but eventually the others would drift away and Luffy would be alone at the bar once more.

Zoro tried to ignore him, he really did, but Luffy was a fidgeter. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't keep his eyes off him for long.

_Ah, fuck it,_ he thought. Where was the harm in it?

"Is something wrong?" Zoro asked.

"Hm? No?" Luffy sat a little straighter in his stool. "Why do you ask?"

"Because usually you're making your rounds right about now, but you haven't left that stool since you sat down," Zoro said.

Luffy smiled, a silly, stupid smile that was entirely too honest. "I thought you and I would talk more tonight, but you were busy so I was waiting."

Zoro kicked himself mentally, but he wasn't sure if that was because he had talked to Luffy and brought this on himself, or if it was because he hadn't talked to Luffy from the start. He didn't think too deeply about which it was either.

"Sorry," he muttered.

"No problem!"

A beat of silence fell between them. Luffy was watching him expectantly. The ball was in Zoro's court, so to speak. He had the control here. Luffy had given it to him right from the start. If Zoro wanted to avoid any more conversation, all he had to do now was drop the ball and walk away. He had an out, clear and simple.

"What did you want to talk about?" he asked.

He had an out, and he didn't take it.

"Do you go to school?" Luffy asked.

Again, it was a mundane question but it seemed so weighted.

"Yeah," Zoro answered. "The University up the road."

"Cool!" Luffy said. "What are you going for?"

"Physical therapy," Zoro said, though the words sounded slightly sour even to his own ears.

"What's it like? Do you like it?"

There was an ever present excitement in Luffy's eyes that seemed to grow as they talked.

"Not really." Again, an answer that was more honest than Zoro meant for it to be.

"Why not?" Luffy asked.

Zoro took a deep breath, and then he let go.

"The classes are boring, the field doesn't interest me. I thought it would be something I could as least kind of get into, but I've never really felt committed to it. I thought about changing my major, but there isn't anything I'd rather be doing."

"So why'd you go to school if you don't like it?" Luffy frowned.

"Isn't that what you're supposed to do?" Zoro asked. "High school, college, career, family? That's what everyone does right? I mean some people might start a family then a career, and some people skip out on all of that but how does that turn out for them? So, I'm going with the flow."

Luffy sat quiet after that. He sat quiet for so long that Zoro began to wonder if he had said too much. Maybe he had been too honest, maybe he should have downplayed his explanation, or brushed it off. Because Luffy was a stranger, and no stranger really cared to hear that much. Zoro certainly didn't, and he'd never met anyone else who did.

Zoro was just about to apologize, to play his previous commentary off as a joke. The atmosphere between them seemed almost oppressively thick, and it only served to make Zoro more uneasy. He was going to apologize, and erase what had been said. Luffy would probably never seek him out for a one-on-one conversation again, but that was alright.

"If you don't like it, why would you do it?" Luffy interrupted before Zoro could speak. "That seems kinda stupid."

Zoro's mouth gaped open.

"Besides," Luffy continued, "isn't there something you'd rather be doing? I mean, everyone's got a dream, right?"

It was such an astoundingly simple idea; a solution that had been there all along, but one that Zoro had never even considered. It seemed so stupid when he thought of it, but when Luffy said it, it sounded practical. It made what Zoro was doing feel more stupid than anything.

"Yeah," Zoro said, his mind only half on the conversation. The other half was trapped in an earth-shattering revelation. "I guess you're right."

"Yeah!" Luffy said. He stood up from his barstool, and the scrape of metal legs against sticky wooden floor snapped Zoro's mind back into the present.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

Luffy pointed up to the clock on the wall behind the bar. "Isn't it closing time?"

Zoro looked at the time, and then around the room with surprise. When had it gotten so late? When had he and Luffy become the only people in the bar?

"Sorry to stay so late," Luffy said, "I'll see you tomorrow."

He slipped out the door before Zoro could reply. Zoro looked around the bar again. It looked different to him, somehow, although nothing about it had changed in the last few hours.

Zoro shook his head to clear his thoughts, and started his usual cleaning duties.

* * *

"So you don't come from anywhere, but where do you live now?"

Once again, Luffy had seated himself at the bar. Zoro waited patiently for the other patrons to come and greet their favorite new addition. It took a couple hours, since they came in small groups and lingered near Luffy longer than was really necessary. It was a kind of magnetism, Zoro thought. When he wanted to, Luffy could use it to pull himself towards other people, and sometimes he could switch it so that other people were pulled towards him.

After all of his new friends had come and greeted Luffy, Zoro finally had his chance.

He'd spent the night debating it, losing sleep and missing half his morning classes as a result, but he came to one conclusion.

There was no reason to hold back.

Luffy wasn't anything special to him, calling them friends would have been a stretch, but maybe that was the appeal in it all. Luffy was no one special, so Zoro could actually say what he wanted. He could be honest about himself, and he didn't need to hold back his questions.

"I'm staring at the Heart Motel up on Lyndhurst," Luffy said.

"You live in a motel?" Zoro frowned.

"I'm staying there for now, yeah." Luffy laughed. "I'm telling you, I don't really live anywhere."

Zoro shook his head. "I don't even know what that's like."

"Robin calls me a 'drifter', but she makes it sound like that's something weird." Luffy poked his tongue out at the thought.

Being a drifter was something weird, but Zoro decided not to mention that.

"Who's Robin?" he asked instead. "A girlfriend?"

"What? Gross! No way. Robin is my aunt." Luffy made a cross with his arms in front of him. "Gross."

"It was just a guess." Zoro laughed. "Well what about work?"

"I don't." Luffy shrugged. He took a sip of his drink, and then rolled the glass between his hands. "I usually end up fired after the first day. Bosses are so strict," he grumbled out the last part, looking childishly put out.

"Then how do you afford to live in a motel?" Zoro asked. He wondered if maybe Luffy came from some kind of money, and he was one of those people that lived their lives free and loose while someone else took care of them. The idea made Zoro's stomach twist. He couldn't stand people like that. He saw enough of them come through the bar on the weekends, kids with wealthy parents who floated through life without a care.

"Oh, I hustle pool over at the Water Street Tavern," Luffy said.

"You… hustle pool?"

"Yeah, that's why I'm always here later at night. I make my money there and come here to drink." He lowered his voice and leaned closer to Zoro as if he were going to share a secret. "This place is way nicer."

That wasn't shocking, considering the Water Street Tavern had a reputation for being a rough place in the worst part of town. Zoro had to admit he was a little impressed.

More than a little impressed. Luffy's life seemed so free and easy. Not the way the frat boys that came into the bar lived, different from that, but more appealing than the by-the-books life Zoro was living. But at the same time, could someone really sustain a life that way?

"Hey, Luffy." Zoro leaned against the counter. "What's your goal? Like, what are you going to be doing in ten years, or twenty?"

Luffy shrugged again. "I dunno. I won't find out until I get there."

Zoro frowned. He couldn't wrap his mind around it, because that way of thinking went against everything he'd ever been taught.

"But you have to have some kind of goal, right?"

"Oh! Yeah!" Luffy laughed. "Of course I do, you gotta have a dream, right? I just wanna be the freest person in the world!" He threw his fists into the air like he was giving a cheer. "And I want to have fun doing it!"

Zoro stared at him, some mixture of dumbfounded disbelief written plainly on his face. It was such a stupid, simplistic dream. Zoro wanted to point out how unrealistic that kind of dream was, but he couldn't make himself conjure up the words. Because was it really so unrealistic? Zoro's mind, steeped in practicality, said yes, but Luffy was living proof that he might be wrong. Luffy's smile and the way he lived said that his dream was going just fine for him.

"What's your dream, Zoro?" Luffy asked.

Zoro stared at Luffy, and words failed him. What was his dream? To become a physical therapist? To have a family? To live a clean cut life? None of that seemed appropriate. Nothing seemed to fit, and suddenly he didn't know what to say.

Luffy chuckled. "Don't worry," he said, "you have one, it just might take you a little while to figure it out."

* * *

After that night, Luffy continued his usual schedule of coming to the bar for another week. Zoro stopped trying to avoid him. It wasn't worth the effort, and Luffy's persistence would have beaten Zoro's weak resolve to avoid him any day. Truth be told, Zoro didn't stand a chance from the start.

Luffy's presence still bothered Zoro though. Not in the way it had before; Zoro was more than used to Luffy's overexcited personality and strange outlook. No, now it was different. Luffy's presence reminded Zoro of an absence he held in his life. Every time they talked, Zoro remembered their conversation about their dreams. Rather, about Luffy's dream and Zoro's lack thereof.

They never came close to that topic again, but Zoro couldn't forget it. He spent every quiet moment dwelling on what his dream might be.

His whole life had been planned. It was mundane, but he knew what steps to take, how to proceed to the end goal. It was ingrained into him that his future was so easily attainable if he only followed the map, but now suddenly he was adrift at sea without a compass. His goals seemed less real than Luffy's dream, and any appeal they had once held for him had evaporated. He needed a dream more than ever, but nothing came to mind.

Luffy said that everyone had one, but Zoro was willing to believe Luffy was actually wrong.

* * *

It was a Wednesday night again, about three weeks after Luffy had first shown up, and right on schedule Luffy walked into the bar at just after ten.

Zoro had learned that Luffy made money up at the Water Street Tavern every night of the week, but that weekends were especially good for business. That was why Luffy didn't stop by on Fridays and Saturdays, the money he was making nearly doubled what he made throughout the week, and the take in was too good to slip out early.

On weekdays though, the Tavern died down at about ten, and Luffy took the chance to see himself out early. Like he'd told Zoro before, the drinks were better here. He said he liked the company more too, though Zoro couldn't see what was appealing about a bunch of old drunks.

That night when Luffy came in, however, Zoro instantly noted that something was different. Luffy's smile was broad, and he greeted the regulars with the same enthusiasm and excitement that he always did, but something was off. Zoro watched him for a while, trying to see a crack in the façade of Luffy's presence, trying to find out what about Luffy had changed.

He watched Luffy slip a five-dollar bill into the jukebox and pick out his songs. He watched him rouse up the regulars, making them dance. He refilled their drinks several times, but never ordered his own. It was like the first night he had arrived here, but livelier. Luffy's presence overwhelmed the bar, filled it top to bottom with the spirit of freedom and the air of laughter.

It went on like that until it was almost closing; meaning Luffy didn't make his way over to Zoro until the others had started filing out, laughing and swaying drunkenly, arm and arm with each other.

"Hey!" Luffy finally greeted, plopping himself down onto his usual barstool. A sheen of sweat covered his face and he was breathing heavily. Too much excitement, and too much dancing, probably, but the smile on his face never wavered.

"Hey," Zoro responded. Without being asked, he filled a glass with water and ice and set it down in front of Luffy.

Luffy picked up the glass and drained it dry in one go. "Thanks!" he said, setting it down on the counter once more.

"Sure thing…" Zoro collected the glass and took his time walking it over to the dish bin. He wasn't sure why he was taking his time, and why he was so hesitant to turn around and face Luffy again. Something was different. When he turned back around, everything would change. He could feel the world shifting behind him.

He took a deep breath and turned.

Luffy was looking out over the bar room, now empty of people. The jukebox cast a neon glow around the back wall, as it played the last of Luffy's musical selections. Zoro watched Luffy's eyes skim the table tops and the tacky wall decorations. His fingers tapped mindlessly on the counter, picking at the thick finish, and he sighed.

"I like this place," Luffy said.

Zoro didn't respond right away. He waited to see if there was more Luffy wanted to add to the end of that sentence, but his attention was still drifting around the room, and he seemed distracted.

"It likes you too," Zoro said. Then he coughed, feeling stupid for his comment. "I mean, the regulars like you a lot."

Luffy laughed. "Those guys are fun."

Zoro thought about mentioning that those old timers had never been fun before Luffy came around, but he didn't. Besides, Luffy probably wouldn't understand it. There was an atmosphere around him that effected everyone he came into contact with, but Luffy would never be able to see that.

Luffy sighed again, and the corners of his smile fell just slightly.

"I'm leaving town tomorrow," he said.

Zoro felt as if all the air in his lungs had been driven out at once. He choked on the words he wanted to say, and remained silent.

"I know it hasn't been that long, but I really like this place. It was nice here," Luffy continued. "I'll probably come back again someday."

"When will that be?" Zoro asked.

Luffy shrugged.

Zoro tried to picture himself, ten, twenty years from then. He tried to see where he would be, how he and Luffy would meet again. The visions dissipated like smoke the moment they formed. He didn't know what the future held for him. He hadn't figured out his own dream even, and until he did the future would always be an unsubstantial blur.

"Where are you going?" Zoro tried instead.

"I dunno. I usually just pick a direction and head out." Luffy said. "It's worked pretty well for me so far."

He flashed Zoro that smile. Zoro didn't say anything.

Zoro stood there. He was on the precipice of something. One wrong move would send him over the edge into an unknown. He needed to step back, but his feet were locked and frozen on spot.

"Did you want to come?" Luffy asked. He leaned over the counter, his eyes suddenly wide and excited once more. "It's a lot of fun! I'll teach you how to play pool. Oh! And not just pool either, I'm really good at poker too! I mean, sometimes I end up some place where pool won't make me much, you know? But I have a ton of tricks I could teach you."

Zoro took a step backwards, away from Luffy.

"I don't know..." he said. "It sounds great, Luffy, but I'm not sure it's for me."

"Oh." Luffy visible sagged, his shoulders drooping and his body spilling over the bar top in his disappointment. "Does that mean you figured out your dream?"

Zoro didn't answer.

"That's good," Luffy smiled. He looked genuinely happy for Zoro. "I hope you make it, Zoro!"

He slid off the barstool and headed for the door. "Maybe I'll see you again someday," he said. Then he pulled open the bar door, and stepped out into the cold air beyond.

The bell above the door chimed for the last time.

Zoro could see his future clearly now. He could see himself graduating college, applying for jobs, buying a home. There was a family, his family. A long career, a retirement. He could see it all in front of him, the plans that he'd set for himself all along unfurling into one long road ahead.

He could see it, and he knew it was absolutely not what he wanted.

He grabbed his jacket from under the bar and pulled it on so fast the seams threatened to rip. He took a step forward. He was falling over that edge, tipping over into the unknown. He didn't know where he would land, how he would make it, or what would happen to him at the end of this fall. He knew whatever it was, though, it was better than the future _could_ imagine.

He didn't know what his dream was yet, but he knew it wasn't here. It wasn't in this bar, or in his classes at school. It wasn't in his small one room apartment or the crappy beater of a car he drove.

He ripped the door to the bar open so fast the bell didn't even have time to ring.

"Luffy!" he called out. "Wait up!"

* * *

**A/N: **Mediums who claim to be able to converse with the dead have explained that each life you live serves to teach you a lesson that you need to learn to achieve a higher level of understanding and become closer to God. Every life you live presents to you a new lesson to learn and your entire life will be spent achieving that knowledge. Then you will be reincarnated, to any time and place, and your life will begin again with a new lesson to be learned.

I don't want to call this a reincarnation AU, because it's really not, but I did write it with this kind of idea in mind. Zoro is a kind of lost soul in this fic, he hasn't learned the lesson he needs to at this point, and if he continued on like he was, he would never have learned the lesson in life that he was supposed to.

Luffy is the catalyst for his change. It was essential that Luffy and Zoro meet in this lifetime. Luffy was the driving force needed to correct Zoro's path and set him on course to learn what he needs to. I don't think that's entirely different from their relationship in canon either, though their interaction and the lessons Zoro will take in canon might be different from what he gets here.

Anyway, none of this is essentially important to this fic, but I thought it might be at least an interesting A/N if nothing else :)


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